Domestic violence remains a serious public problem, especially in Hispanic communities, where one in three women are victims of domestic violence in their lifetimes. Yet, less than 50 percent of Hispanic women report the incidents, indicating lack of confidence in the police and fear they might...

Economics has long studied how consumers respond to the disclosure of information about firms. We study a case in which the disclosed information is unrelated to the product or firm leadership, but which could still potentially affect consumer patronage through the mechanism of repugnance, as...

Opioid abuse is currently the most significant public health problem in the US. Many US states have implemented prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) in response. In this paper, I use a new micro-level medical claims database to exploit state-level and time-series variations in PDMP...

More than 6.4 million U.S. properties entered foreclosure between 2007 and 2009. Among the dire consequences of foreclosure is a possible increase in crime. Foreclosures and the subsequent property vacancies and residential turnover may affect community crime rates by increasing opportunities...

This study presents an empirical and quantitative study of the causes of variation in the crime rate at the municipal level. To this end, using an historical perspective, the primary sources of municipal data used were the homicide rate in 1962, the budget expenditures intended for the...

This paper presents estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources...

Both crime and terrorism impose costs onto society through the channels of fear and worry. Identifying and targeting groups which are especially affected by worries might be one way to reduce the total costs of these two types of insecurity. However, compared to the drivers of the fear of crime,...

The standard economic model of crime emphasizes the individual rationality and agency of criminals. On the other hand, sociological theories typically emphasize the importance of social forces. This essay surveys a recent strand of literature on law enforcement that bridges these two approaches....

Rural areas of developing countries often lack effective legal enforcement. However, villagers who know each other well and interact repeatedly may use implicit contracts to minimize crime. I construct a dynamic limited-commitment model in which a thief cannot credibly commit to forego stealing...

We use a panel dataset of around 3.500 rural households from Southeast Asia and investigate evidence on crime victimization. More concretely, we ask (1) to what extent are rural people in Thailand and Vietnam affected by crime? And (2) what factors determine rural crime victimization? We use the...